Free Deadly Force by Keith Douglass

or walk.”
    â€œThat’s our boy, our glorious President. I also know that you were upset by the twelve million dollars his regime squandered and stole from the Farm Project.”
    The Vice President chuckled again. “Mojombo, you don’t miss much, do you? Yes, I’m still angry about that. Not a lot of money in terms of some of the massive foreign assistance programs we have, but to have him simply steal it is unforgivable.”
    â€œDo you know that we no longer have a national school system? Each province is supposed to have an elected school board and to build and run schools. Six years ago, President Kolda withdrew all of the federal money from the school system. The entire education system failed and over two thousand schools closed.”
    â€œSwitzerland?”
    â€œProbably that’s where most of the stolen money goes. Or a half-dozen other safe-money countries.”
    â€œTaxes. I’ll bet Kolda’s Administration is remarkably brilliant about levying and collecting taxes.”
    This time it was Mojombo’s turn to laugh, but it had a bitter edge to it. “Absolutely right, Mr. Vice President Adams. He bleeds every bit of money he can from the people, and rewards them by raising the tax rates again. Nobody has any idea how many millions of dollars this man and his cohorts have stolen from my country. We probably never will know.”
    Mojombo went forward and spoke with the captain at the wheel a moment, then came back. He brought with him the SATCOM that had been in the limousine. “I bet you know how to work this, Mr. Vice President.”
    â€œI’ve seen it done.”
    â€œWe have detailed and complete operating instructions on working the SATCOM. We got it off the Web straightfrom the maker of the radio.” He grinned, clean white teeth flashing in his dark smile. “We try to be as efficient as possible.”
    â€œI’m starting to believe you. We had a report that some terrorists attacked the city two days before we arrived. Stormed the Central Police Station and raided it for weapons, and then proceeded to slip into a large military post on the outskirts of town, where they stole two truckloads of weapons, ammunition, and food supplies.”
    â€œYou’re correct, Mr. Vice President, with the exception that the raiders were not terrorists, they were Loyalists. We were highly efficient on that raid, and lucky at the same time. They still haven’t realized that we are a solid military organization that won’t go away. Those supplies are part of our lifeline.”
    â€œWhy hasn’t that little general we met loaded up fifty boats and stormed up the river and wiped out everything that moved? He could do it with his twelve thousand troops.”
    â€œGeneral Assaba tried it two weeks ago, but he only brought fifty men in three boats. We had advance warning that he was coming. Our men were hiding in the trees along the river waiting for him. Fish in a barrel, Mr. Vice President. He tried to attack us, but we routed him with at least fifty-percent casualties. We had one man wounded in the leg, and no KIAs. He must have learned a lesson.”
    â€œBut could he come with a huge force?”
    â€œNot with the boats he has now. He has no real Navy, and only six river patrol boats. He might move three hundred men if he was lucky. We could handle them, probably sink most of the boats with RPGs before he got within fifteen miles of our camp.”
    â€œHe knows that?”
    â€œHe should.”
    Adams watched out the window, and saw that the boat turned into a tributary of the larger river. This one was much smaller, and the dense jungle grew down almost to the water’s edge on both sides.
    â€œIn a setting like this you might recall the missions you ran for the Navy on the Nam rivers,” Mojombo said.
    For a moment Commander Marshall Adams was back on a Black Navy killer boat on a Nam river and the rifle fire